Stocks are one of the most effective tools for building wealth, as stocks are a share of ownership of a company. You thus have great potential to receive monetary benefits when you own stock shares. Owning stocks of fundamentally strong companies simply lets your money work harder for you since they appreciate in value over a period of time while also offering rich dividends on a periodic basis.

Traditionally, indices have been used as information sources. By looking at an index we know how the market is faring. This information aspect also figures in myriad applications of stock market indices in economic research.

Derivatives are financial contracts that derive their value from an underlying asset. These could be stocks, indices, commodities, currencies, exchange rates, or the rate of interest. These financial instruments help you make profits by betting on the future value of the underlying asset. So, their value is derived from that of the underlying asset. This is why they are called ‘Derivatives’.
The value of the underlying assets changes every now and then. For example, a stock’s value may rise or fall, the exchange rate of a pair of currencies may change, indices may fluctuate, commodity prices may increase or decrease. These changes can help an investor make profits. They can also cause losses. This is where derivatives come handy. It could help you make additional profits by correctly guessing the future price, or it could act as a safety net from losses in the spot market, where the underlying assets are traded.

Suppose you buy a Futures contract of Infosys shares at Rs 3,000 – the stock price of the IT company currently in the spot market. A month later, the contract is slated to expire. At this time, the stock is trading at Rs 3,500. This means, you make a profit of Rs. 500 per share, as you are getting the stocks at a cheaper rate.
Had the price remained unchanged, you would have received nothing. Similarly, if the stock price fell by Rs. 800, you would have lost Rs. 800. As we can see, the above contract depends upon the price of the underlying asset – Infosys shares. Similarly, derivatives trading can be conducted on the indices also. Nifty Futures is a very commonly traded derivatives contract in the stock markets. The underlying security in the case of a Nifty Futures contract would be the 50-share Nifty index.

One advantage of option trading as compared to stock trading is the amount of flexibility, you have lots of option strategies to make money in any kind of market –

a. Stocks going up
b. Stocks going down
c. Stocks remaining stagnant or range bound

Another advantage is that your money is always liquid. This being a long term investment group, this may not be a consideration for people, but to make money from stocks, you need to block your capital for comparatively longer period of time.
Whereas, in options, mostly trades are held maximum till expiry of current month, which is last Thursday of every month. So, you make money without really blocking your capital.